


Sixes and Sevens

by Ithinkwehaveanemergency



Series: I'm Stuck in a Spiderweb [1]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 17:17:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11741628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/pseuds/Ithinkwehaveanemergency
Summary: Michelle and Ned are besties.  So why didn't Peter get the memo?  Why doesn't Peter get the memo about anything anymore?  Sure he's out saving the world, but he wants to be part of their little inside jokes too.Or, the one where maybe Peter wants to be closer to MJ than he thought.  Maybe he already is.





	Sixes and Sevens

**Author's Note:**

> "I am fortune's fool, and you are my goal." -  
> Sixes and Sevens, by Mondo Cozmo

"Fuck."

Peter looked up from his homework as Michelle sat down across from him right next to Ned at the pinic table outside their school's front doors.

"What?" Ned asked without looking up from his Switch.

"I broke a nail." She leaned closer to Ned, shoving her finger in front of his handheld game quickly to show him before pulling it back again and squinting at it. 

Ned balked at that and looked up at her while his game made the telltale sound of a car falling off the track. Peter frowned slightly at the close casual interaction.

"That is just about the last thing I expected to hear you say just now." Ned snickered at Michelle, who was examining her nail with scrutiny. She looked up with an unimpressed glare, jabbing him with her elbow, which he batted away with his own, before picking at the her nail again and wincing.

"What, being a feminist means that breaking my nail doesn't hurt? What kind of teenage-boy-macho-nonsense is that? You broke a nail the other day and you whined about it for an hour. You even made me get you an ice pack." She picked at something on her broken nail that made her gasp and wince again. Peter didn't remember this occurance at all. His frown deepened.

"Well, stop picking at it, you drama queen. Let me see. And I shut my finger in a door, thats why I was whining. Not even close to the same situation." Ned put down his game and grabbed her hand roughly.

"Watch it, loser!" Michelle cried. "Call me a queen again without meaning it in the most respectful, praising way, and see what happens."

"It's not even bleeding!" Ned cried back, throwing her hand back at her and picking up his game again.

"It hurts like a mother, okay?" Michelle pouted then looked up at Peter, face returning to its normal blank stare before acknowledging him with a nod. "'Sup dork?"

Peter furrowed his brow and frowned even further in confusion.

"Hi?"

The bell rang, saving him from the chance to correct his response to something less lame, making himself look even more lame. He didn't mean for it to be a question, but he was just a little off his game after last night. Three robberies happened at the same time, and Peter was pretty sure they timed it like that so one would be successful. He couldn't be three places at once, and the criminals knew that.

Ned and Michelle stood up, already talking animatedly about the crazy thing that had happened at practice yesterday (of which Peter had missed the last half _\- before the robberies, there was a crazy-tinder-stalker kidnapping turned mass hostage situation a couple blocks away at a coffee shop -_ and Michelle had waved off his 'emergency' with no complaint). His friends started walking toward the class they all shared together first thing every morning. Peter trailed behind after packing up his binder, trying to figure out what they were talking about to no avail. Each one would into laughter at every half sentence that left their mouth, which made it impossible to get the whole story. They weren't talking to him anyway, he supposed.

In class, Peter watched as they elbow bumped in synchronicity, almost like a secret handshake _-his and Ned's was cooler-_ before they all took their usual seats. Ned and Peter always sat next to eachother and Michelle always found herself several seats away, near the door. Michelle immediately opened her sketchbook and started drawing.

"Dude." Peter whispered, slapping Ned on the shoulder with more force than necessary. "Did you replace me?"

"What?" Ned looked at him, confused, cradling his shoulder. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Michelle." Peter hissed. "Its like you guys are best friends or something. When did that happen?"

Ned scoffed and turned to get his book out for class as the teacher walked in. "Don't be stupid." He laughed. "MJ is in all of my classes and the captain of our team. Of course we're friends. We're all friends, dumbass, she went and saw Underworld at the revival theatre with us last week. What, are you jealous or something?"

"Yeah," Peter sighed exasperated, "I'm friends with her, but like, you're like... really close. Like, you're best-friends-close. Like her face changes expression when she speaks to you. You have inside jokes." Peter mimicked her pouting from earlier, then his face changed to one of shock. "Are you dating?!"

"Peter," Ned turned to him and gave him the patented Michelle stare, "You're a loser. Are you seriously that oblivious? MJ has liked the same godforsaken person forever, and you've gotta be the only person in the school who doesn't know who that is..." Ned thought about that for a second, before amending, "The only person on Decathalon. No one else knows who MJ is..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"Oh my-" Peter cut himself off and groaned in frustration. "Stop getting side tracked, I'm trying to talk about your new bestie-" He was interrupted when a wadded up piece of paper hit him on the cheek then landed on his desk. He looked back at Michelle, who was just staring at him, as usual. He uncrumpled the paper and examined the tiny sketch. It was a quickly drawn Spiderman crying dramatically over a broken nail. Underneath it was a note. You think spidey gets broken nails too? - MJ

"What the-"

"Peter Parker. Stop passing love notes to your boyfriend in class." Mr. Thompkins snapped at him and Ned from the front of the class.

"Thompkins is such a dork. That wasn't even me-" Ned muttered under his breath, while looking over at Peter's drawing. He froze mid sentence. He slowly turned to Michelle with wide eyes, then looked back down at his notes.

"Dude!" Peter whisper-yelled, "Does she know? Did you tell her?" His eyes were wide and panicked as he shook the paper at Ned.

"No! Why would I tell her? Do you really think I'd do that? We'll talk about this after class." Ned shushed him and started pointedly at the front of the room. Peter glanced no-so-discretely back at Michelle, and found her smirking to herself while studiously staring forward to copy the notes that Mr. Thompkins had written on the board.

\------

"Ned, whatthefuck?" Peter hissed as they packed up their things at the end of class.

They had both watched Michelle glide out of class quickly the second the bell rang. He knew she liked to stop at the teachers lounge to steal a hot coffee on the way to her second class everyday. He caught her leaving the small room one day with a hot drink cup in hand, the sound of the coach yelling behind her to 'stop stealing from us, the coffee isn't even that good.'

"Peter, I swear," Ned hissed back, "I didn't tell her anything! She's just been asking out-of-the-blue, realllllly strange, nosey questions about Spiderman. Like I know him or something." Ned looked Peter in the eye and then adopted a lower pitched voice that sounded nothing like Michelle, "'What do you think the range on Spiderman's hearing is?', 'Can Spiderman heal fast?', 'Hey, tell Spiderman that someone keeps stealing amazon packages from my doorstep.', 'Does Spiderman wear boxers under his suit?' Which, ew, Peter." Ned sighed as he picked up the last of his books and stood up. He fixed Peter with a concerned stare. "I think she knows."

"No shit! God, Ned." Peter groaned and led the way out into the hall, where they usually split off to go to their second classes. "What am I going to do?" Peter whined at Ned, pausing to grip Ned's shoulder tightly in despair.

"You could tell her?" Ned shrugged Peter's hand off his shoulder, rubbing it and swatting at the offending hand that came back to grab his bruised shoulder again when Peter flailed in shock and gasped.

"What?" Peter stared at him, mouth gaping, and blinked a few times. "What don't you understand about 'secret identity,' Ned? I can't just keep telling people willy-nilly. It's not safe! For any of us!" Peter was whisper yelling again. "Plus, she's totally gonna laugh at me" Peter huffed angrily.

Ned stared at him in disbelief and shook his head, muttering 'willy-nilly?' and something about being oblivious. He walked away in the direction of his next class.

"Dude!" Peter yelled over the noise of the students migrating through the hallway, "I'm scared!"

Ned flipped him off without even turning around.

Peter gaped. "They're starting to act way too much alike."

\-----

Lunch found the three of them sitting in their usual places, Michelle deeply engrossed in her book but still throwing in jabs at the conversation when she found it necessary. 'Another one? Didn't you losers just finish a Hoth Lego set that is now taking up over half of Ned's room?' 'Ned, I think Sandra is gay, not bi, we've talked about this, trust me. Give up on asking her out.'

After a particularly long bout of laughter between Peter and Michelle as they teamed up in ridiculing Ned's idiotic hairbrained plan to work sexual orientation into a conversation with their classmate Sandra, and get her to reveal her own, _instead of actually just telling her why he's interested and politely asking like a rational person_ , he blurted out, "Yeah well it's not like you have a foot to stand on when it comes to feelings, MJ." The table falls silent at that.

Ned and MJ's glaring contest after that lasts until she checks her watch and says, "Later losers." They watch her grab her things and head to the library, presumably, and Peter furrows his brow at Ned.

"That wasn't nice." Peter half-laughed at Ned a little unsure at the situation, and feeling a lot left out again.

"You guys weren't being nice." Ned huffed, "Plus, Michelle is the worst sometimes. I've asked her to get insider intel several times, and she refuses, but then when she asks me to--" He shuts up suddenly, looking down at his food. "I'll tell her I'm sorry later, and she'll be like, 'yeah whatever' and we'll be cool. She knows I didn't mean it." Ned sighs and stuffs a tater tot in his mouth, and starts talking before he's even done chewing. "Plus, see! Look at you guys, you were totally being all buddy-buddy, I don't know why you're so scared to tell her. You guys are a lot closer than you're making it seem. I mean, you guys text more than you and I do!"

Peter knows that he's out of the loop with them sometimes, because of Spiderman stuff, but Ned has a point. He and Michelle will text about current events and music late into the night sometimes. Nothing deep, or personal, but he knows just as much about her as anyone, he supposes. "I just don't want her to hate me," Peter shruggs, "I don't want to get close to people anymore, because I always end up with them hating me."

"Hey." Ned breaks him from his thoughts with a gentle pat on the arm. "That was overly dramatic, but you're a teenager, so it's acceptable, and I'm proud of you for acknowledging your issues."

Peter levels him with an unimpressed glare at that, but Ned powers through.

"You're kind of an idiot a lot of the time, Peter, but I'll help you out here. I'm 99.9% positive that MJ couldn't hate you if she tried. Not even a little bit." He gave Peter a meaningful look, and they were quiet for a bit to let Peter think.

Ned, always having something to add, mumbles, "I bet she's tried pretty hard though." He shrugged as he ate another tater tot, and Peter mock gasped and threw a couple of his own at his best friend.

\-----

At about eight that night, Peter sits on the edge of a building that he _knew_ was common for bike thieves and muggings, and _yeah okay_ , so it was Michelle's building, where he happened to know the front door to the building wasn't locking the way it should, thanks to a little text conversation with Ned after lunch. He had seen a hipster-looking, kind of scruffy guy about 20 minutes ago try to walk out of the building with a handful of packages after walking in 5 minutes before empty handed. He had jumped down in front of the guy and merely said 'hello' before the twenty-something-year-old dropped the packages and ran off.

Peter let him go and returned the packages to their respective apartment numbers. Even getting a gift of thanks from a little old lady who opened her door at just the right time. He explained what he had done, and she gasped and said that her avon products hadn't shown up in ages and she couldn't thank him enough for making sure she got her face cream. She made him a gigantic sandwich for his troubles.

He was just making sure that MJ got home safe that night. That was the only reason he still there. He definitely wasn't sitting there trying to figure out a way to bring up the Spiderman conversation with her.

His phone buzzed. It was a message from MJ.

'I've been home for like 10 minutes.'

Peter frowned at the message and replied, 'What?'

'I got home when you were at Mrs. Hartfield's apartment. How was your sandwich?'

Peter groaned loudly. So they were talking about this. This was it. It was inevitable. No backing out. One more person in on his secret. His phone buzzed again.

'I can also hear you overthinking this. You're like... awkwardly close to my window.'

He looked down below his feet and saw a pair of boots, crossed at the ankle, propped on a small window sill two stories below. He took a deep breath and started descending on a web string, upside down, until he was even with her window.

Peter took in her appearance. She was still wearing her slow slung, slim fit ragged jeans and commando boots from school, but she had changed, _or just removed, he supposed,_ her top, and was now just in a sports bra, leaning back in her chair, reading a book. A large glass of iced coffee and her phone sat on the desk next to her. She looked so young, yet still fierce at the same time. But seeing her like this, relaxed and at home, made this a lot less scary.

"If we're doing this, we're doing this rightside up, Spidey." Michelle broke him out of his daze. He noticed that she hadn't even stopped reading her book as she said it. "Its dark out, and trying to look at you like that is gonna make me dizzy." Peter noticed she was even speaking softer than usual. That was making this a lot less scary as well, so he slowly let his grip with his feet loose and dropped so that he was just hanging from one arm, feet planted next to hers on the window sill, so that he was crouched right outside. She finally looked up at him. "Do you want to come in?"

"Sure." Peter didn't recognize his own voice, it sounded soft and scared. He gripped the ledge of her window as she moved her feet out of the way and scooted her chair back a bit. He deftly slipped through the small space but then felt awkward as he stood, looking down at a girl he'd known for years and watching her look up at him like he she did every day, outside of the suit. Blank.

"Sit?" She offered, holding her hand out towards her bed, indicating that was the most optimal place to have this conversation. He sat, staring at his hands until her voice brought him from his thoughts. "I'm sorry."

Peter's head jerked up at that. "Wha-?"

"I'm sorry." She cut him off. "I shouldn't have forced you to do this." She looked down, almost embarrassed. She got up then, and went to a minifridge that sat in the corner of the room and pulled out a bottled water and held it out at him. Peter grabbed the bottle at looked up at her. She was standing in front of him, face stubbornly blank, but he could tell she was trying to keep the guilt off of it. "I just didn't want to lie to you anymore," she shrugged, "about knowing. And after today-" She sat back down, but continued looking at him, trying to convey her feelings without letting a muscle on her face move. Peter found it almost endearing, but more so annoying right now, because he just wanted her to look at him in a way he could read.

He went to pull his mask off, but her hand shot out and grabbed his. It was awkward. She just kind of sat there leaning towards him, keeping him from removing the mask.

"Wait." She took a deep breath. "I'm about to say something stupid, because Ned kinda gave me no choice, calling me out like that, and I really would rather say it to your stupid spiderface." She frowned. He waited, rolling his eyes behind the mask (he's still not sure exactly what that looks like) but grabbing the hand she was stopping him with, and lowering it until he was just holding it between them.

"I like you, Spidey." She rushed the words out on one quick exhale.

"Can you stop calling me that?" Peter spoke softly.

"No." She snapped. "Like I said, it makes this easier." She straightened, yanking her hand from where he had still held it. She looked down at her hands and then took a deep breath. "Pretty much everyone I'm friends with thinks I'm obsessed with you. They're not entirely wrong." She looked up then, staring at him, making him feel like she could see right through the mask. "You're brave, and clever, and fascinating, and I made all of those conclusions before you even had superpowers."

Peter sucked in a breath. He waited a minute, just to make sure she was done, then whispered, "Can I take this mask off now?" He went to pull it off and she made no motion to stop him, but she did look back down at her hands. He looked at her without all the HUD of the suit and noticed that she looked even softer and younger than before like this. "Without this mask on, you're terrifying." He spit out, finally, and she looked up to meet his eyes in shock at that. "As long as I've known you, you've been so sure of yourself, and so much better than everyone else, and yeah that might be as much of a mask to you as Spiderman is to me, but you are. You're confident. You're smarter and more passionate than everyone else. It's overwhelming."

Michelle's face changed at that. She looked at him from head to toe, as is realizIng for the first time, what she was faced with. The suit. Her friend's face.

"Yeah, I was terrified to tell you," Peter continued, "but I'm not sorry that you know." He put his hands out, offering to hold hers. She gently placed hers on top of his and he squeezed them comfortingly. "I know that you can handle it, MJ, but I didn't know if I could. I didn't know what you'd think of me." He looked away. "I still don't."

"Spidey," Michelle started, which made Peter roll his eyes, "I know that you saved the lives of my friends, and countless others, but Peter," She moved one hand from his to brush his slightly matted hair away from his forehead, making him turn to her in question, "I think the world of you. I always have." She smiled and squeezed both his hands, tightly, before bringing her blank-face back. "If you tell anyone I said that, they won't find the body."

Peter laughed and she smiled once again. He paused before asking, "How long?"

"How long what?" Michelle cocked a brow. "How long have I liked you?"

"No," Peter blushed, "How long have you known about me?"

Michelle nodded and thought for a bit. "I guess since the homecoming dance. I found your tie in the hall, by the way. But also, I kind of heard Ned whisper-shout some strangely incriminating things on the DC trip."

"Fucking Ned." Peter chuckled. "He had just found out. By accident. I'm not great at secrets."

"Mmhmm, yeah, no, I know." Michelle hummed as she got up and pulled him up from sitting as well. "So, let me take a look at this avengers nonsense you've got on." She spun him around by the shoulders in a full 360 and hummed again. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows twice. "Revealing..."

Peter scrunched his face and shoved her away gently enough that she didn't move more than a step away. "Perv." He snickered as she smirked at him. He could see the redness on her cheeks, despite the false bravado.

"I'm 16, Peter." Michelle deadpanned, lifting her nose up a little, daring him to judge her. "I can't help it."

"Hey!" Peter balked, gesturing to her outfit, trying not to linger too long on where her jeans were hung so low he could make out the lines of her hip bones. "You're fucking gorgeous and you're half naked, and you don't see me being a creep about it. Though now, I'm starting to look like one, I'm so sorry!" He couldn't help looking back down at her hips and raising an eyebrow. "Since when do you own pants that aren't high waisted?"

Michelle barked out a laugh, and twirled him around, shoving him toward the window. "Alright, Romeo, time to go." She chuckled as she shoved his mask in his hands. "Just because I'm harboring an ill-advised crush on your super-zero ass, doesn't mean we're there yet." He spun around and looked her in the eye, wringing the mask nervously.

"Can we be?" He asked, unsure of himself, suddenly. "Like... would you want to go out sometime?" He swallowed, mouth dry, and started rambling. "Only if you want. I mean, if you need time to think about it, I get it. I don't have the best track record, and I'd be bailing all the time, and I get it if thats just not worth it, but I really think-"

"Peter!" Michelle grabbed his shoulders and righted him so they were standing eye to eye. She had a couple inches on him when he was barefoot like this, but their faces were close and he didn't know why he was so nervous. It was just MJ. MJ, who apprently had feelings for him, and he'd be lying if he didn't admit it made him feel warm inside. She moved a hand to his cheek and whispered, "Can I kiss you?"

Peter nodded instinctively, and before she could even move he put a red hand on her hip and leaned up to kiss her gently just for a second, before pulling away and feeling her exhale against his lips and lean her forehead against his. She moved her hands to the back of his neck, looping her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his again, moving them gently, and even daring to slide her tongue out to taste his bottom lip. Peter chased the feeling with his own tongue and moved to pull her in by the small of the back and kiss her deeper, but she quickly pushed him away and patted him on the head, leaving him a bit dazed.

"C'mon Pete," she guided him to the window again, "I don't think it'd be safe to have you swinging around saving people with a raging boner."

"Oh my f-" his voice cut out briefly as he shoved the mask back on and climbed halfway out the window before squinting his spidey-eyes at the flushed, beautiful girl in the room. "You're such a perv." He groaned before dropping dramatically out of he window.

Unable to help herself, Michelle ran to the window and looked out to the street and smiled as she watched him swing his way back to his own neighborhood.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: Eclecticklutz


End file.
